It’s no secret that the balance and inspiration of tradition and the longing for continuous innovation are often seen as two sides of the same coin. Yet, at times it feels impossible to marry them together into a harmony of outcomes. At Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) 2023 however, both history and the future will converge in the largest user-owned-and-operated virtual world to light the fires of the future of digital fashion’s panoramic potential.
Conceived by metaverse forerunner Decentraland and UNXD, a path-lighting culture and luxury platform in the crypto space, in partnership with Spatial.io and OVER metaverse networks, MVFW will be held from March 28-31 this year, and will be the space to reveal the next frontier of digital. Illuminated by the theme ‘Future Heritage’, this iteration of MVFW aims to bridge tradition with innovation via a fundamental purpose poised to have boundary-blasting consequences. By linking next-generation designers with long-reigning luxury fashion houses, thereupon raising the stakes for fashion in technology’s most current cutting-edge expression.
The roster of brands and collaborators participating in MVFW 2023 is both bast and impressive. Vogue Singapore joins the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Adidas, DKNY, Diesel, Clarks, and a lineup of head-turning digital fashion houses and platforms such as DRESSX, Phygicode, The Fabricant, Altr, The Institute of Digital Fashion, House of Web3 and Meta Fashion House for this groundbreaking moment. It has become obvious to the headwaters of physical fashion that Web3 is the next and most necessary canvas upon which the evolution of fashion and its attendant implications on the communities and cultures it draws from and feeds into will be written. As much as the old rules continue to hold sway IRL, the realm of possibility in the metaverse is only now being unearthed.
Digital fashion’s new age will be heralded over the course of the series of events and activations that will unspool throughout MVFW 2023 and across several metaverses, but it’s at Decentraland’s Luxury District that the various brands will showcase their statement-making wares.
Dolce&Gabbana leads the charge towards the next wave with the winning designs from its Future Rewards competition, in which the brand partners with emerging talent in releasing a co-branded Wearables line. Gleaning the best from spirited competition is also the ethos governing Tommy Hilfiger’s offerings, the daily drops of which will include top designs from a community competition picked by none other than Tommy Hilfiger himself, as well as AI-generated products. Adding a measure of whimsy and spontaneity to the proceedings, Diesel and HAPE will commandeer the D-Cave community space for an immersive virtual party featuring an array of NFT Wearables.
The intersection of new technologies and fashion will also be affirmed and celebrated by the involvement of tech-focused players such as Threedium, a 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) engine poised to reconfigure commerce as we know it, which will house Pinko, PwC and Clarks within the domain of its virtual mall. Likewise forward-thinking, Cash Labs, the leading force in bringing Web3 endeavours to market, will host a slew of multimedia exhibitions, including experiences by Vogue Singapore, which, besides crowning the winners of the ‘From Blockchain to Love Chain‘ digital fashion competition, will helm the following two panels: ‘Love in the Metaverse: A New Age of Connectivity’ and ‘A New World: Fashion in the Metaverse’.
Vogue Singapore will showcase the competition’s top three designs on Decentraland, with the eventual winner being announced on Vogue.sg. The voting system on which creations receive top billing will also be established in Decentraland testifies to MVFW’s immersive affordances, further emphasised by a selection of four wearables by phygital fashion linchpin Ilona Song, that avatars can choose to clothe themselves with. Vogue Singapore POAP will also be available for attendees to collect.
Web3 is vast and teeming with unmarked terrain. To acquaint people with how they can connect with and enrich one another, Spatial.io will carry a torch for female-led projects including BFF World by MYBFF (an open-access community dedicated to helping women and non-binary people empower themselves in the world of Web3), an exclusive collection of Ready Player Me wearables with collaborating designers: MAVION, The Fabricant, Eyes of Fashion, amongst others.
Hip-hop and R&B also takes the stage at this edition of MVFW in the form of the Grammy-winning troubadour Miguel, who, together with S1C world, will be debuting an exclusive digital wearable collection in collaboration with designer Franc Fernandez, along with a gamified fan quest in the new EMPIRE space by T3MP0 & VoxBox.
Beyond the big names, the progressive nature of MVFW 2023 is most certainly evident in its signaling of next-generation talent. For the first time on such vast scale, some of the most scene-stealing houses and platforms in digital fashion will have their pieces honoured and showcased. These ranks include DRESSX, Phygicode, The Fabricant, Altr, amongst other agencies whose good work is the foundation upon which the future will blossom.
Many initiatives promise a glimpse of the future today—but MVFW 2023 is built on that promise. Tune in to watch the birth of fashion’s new dawn.
Join Decentraland at the next installment of Metaverse Fashion Week by pre-registering here. Follow Decentraland on Twitter and the event hashtag, #MVFW23. For more detailed information, see here.
